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| I am looking at possibly building an indoor/horse barn. Looking at possible 60 x 120 or 72x120. Would 60 be enough? I want to be able to lope a pattern. I know that 72 is big enough to do that but I really like the price of the 60 wide. It will be a wood structure unless steal could some how be cheaper. I also might possibly put a lean on the one size for stalls and hay storage. Is it cheaper to do the lean or just go longer on the indoor? Also looking for any must haves and do not dos. Any info would be great! Thanks in advance! |
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 Expert
Posts: 1367
 
Location: mi | 60 is not wide enough to lope a pattern. Unless your riding a shetland.....
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 The One
Posts: 7997
  
Location: South Georgia | I'd go as wide as feasibly possible and, perhaps, make it more square than long if you need to save some money. As for stalls, it may be cheaper to attach a more narrow barn with aisle on one end. I'm not sure on cost. |
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 Saint Stacey
| Going long doesn’t cost anything. The width is what shoots the price up when building something. |
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 Lived to tell about it and will never do it again
Posts: 5408
| Go as big as you can afford! There is a covered barn by us that is 90 by 180. They do have some barrel races in it but it sure isn't any to big. I wouldn't go any narrower if at all possible. They would really like to add 50 feet on but haven't been able to yet. |
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 Member
Posts: 41
| I would go as big as possible. Spend more money and get extra room, rather than go cheaper and regret it. I made a big mistake when building my outdoor arena and went smaller than I should've and have since regretted it. I would say that it's easier and cheaper to make it the size you want the first time, rather than having to rebuild later. |
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 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | jbaby - 2018-02-12 6:38 PM I would go as big as possible. Spend more money and get extra room, rather than go cheaper and regret it. I made a big mistake when building my outdoor arena and went smaller than I should've and have since regretted it. I would say that it's easier and cheaper to make it the size you want the first time, rather than having to rebuild later.
Yep what was said ^^^^^^  |
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 Total Germophobe
Posts: 6437
Location: Montana | Very interested in this thread, as we were just talking about this today. |
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| Thank you for all the advice! My original thought was 80x150 but that came in at $140,000. YIKES!! So not trying to figure out what I would still be happy with but now break the bank! I also need some sort of attached barn area for hay and stalls. Any one know if it is cheaper to do a lean on the side of the indoor or a smaller building connected?
I have no plan to have races just for private use.
Edited by angelaF 2018-02-13 8:47 AM
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 The Bling Princess
Posts: 3411
Location: North Dakota | angelaF - 2018-02-13 8:46 AM Thank you for all the advice! My original thought was 80x150 but that came in at $140,000. YIKES!! So not trying to figure out what I would still be happy with but now break the bank! I also need some sort of attached barn area for hay and stalls. Any one know if it is cheaper to do a lean on the side of the indoor or a smaller building connected? I have no plan to have races just for private use.
I attached a lean to my barn. It runs the full length (72 feet) and is 12ft wide, enclosed ends, but not the front, and it cost me roughly $4,000. If I wanted to set stalls up under it I totally could. The horses LOVE the lean too. |
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A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | angelaF - 2018-02-13 8:46 AM Thank you for all the advice! My original thought was 80x150 but that came in at $140,000. YIKES!! So not trying to figure out what I would still be happy with but now break the bank! I also need some sort of attached barn area for hay and stalls. Any one know if it is cheaper to do a lean on the side of the indoor or a smaller building connected? I have no plan to have races just for private use.
I would do a lean to and later you can add stalls inside the lean to with runs if needed. A lean to is just so much easier I would think.. |
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| WYOTurn-n-Burn - 2018-02-13 9:52 AM
angelaF - 2018-02-13 8:46 AM Thank you for all the advice! My original thought was 80x150 but that came in at $140,000. YIKES!! So not trying to figure out what I would still be happy with but now break the bank! I also need some sort of attached barn area for hay and stalls. Any one know if it is cheaper to do a lean on the side of the indoor or a smaller building connected? I have no plan to have races just for private use.
I attached a lean to my barn. It runs the full length (72 feet) and is 12ft wide, enclosed ends, but not the front, and it cost me roughly $4,000. If I wanted to set stalls up under it I totally could. The horses LOVE the lean too.
Thank you! |
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| To reiterate what the others have said…go as wide as you can, especially if you are planning to do pattern work in it. When I was in high school my parents built a facility that included a 70x156 indoor and even that width is hard to lope a pattern without it feeling really tight between 1 and 2. In my experience, do much pattern work in a narrow space like that and it starts getting difficult to teach one that they have to actually run between the first and second.
I currently board my two prospects at a place with an even smaller indoor and I am just dreading putting them on the pattern in that small space…it’s either the barrels are tight to the walls or there is zero space between 1 and 2.
It is not as critical for loping circles or doing drills, but for actual pattern work go as wide as you can or plan to haul out often to keep your horses freed up.
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Member
Posts: 20
| My arena is only 60x100 I've started a lot of horses on the pattern it by doing pieces of the pattern for example a barrel in one corner approach it at a first barrel angle make sure to leave it for a few strides at the same angle as if your going to the 2nd. So just working the angle at all of your barrels it takes just a few trips on a regular pattern for them to understand. Not the perfect thing but a 60x100 is better then nothing |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 612
| I ride in a barn that 60x180 at our Fairgrounds. I can trot and lope through the pattern sometimes, but I spend a lot of time with 2 or 3 barrels just doing turning drills. It helps to keep them thinking about the turn without working the actual pattern. It would be great to have a big arena, but you have to do what you can afford and you can accomplish a lot without working the full pattern all of the time. |
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Expert
Posts: 1414
| Our indoor is 100 x 225. It's more of a covered arena and then we put curtains on the sides so in the winter they are down to keep snow and wind out. In the spring-fall curtains are up.
The front 30' (length) is currently used for storing horse trailer, extra wagons, junk, etc. We built a lean-to off the side and it's half the length of the building. We built it extra tall so we can drive the hay wagons in and not have to unload. We have metal gates that are collapsible so if we want we can have 8 stalls in the lean-to if we move out the hay wagons. I've done that twice in 6 years. We put garage doors in each stall/bay going to the exterior so in the winter we can close it, in the summer we open it up and let the breeze flow.
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 Am I really the Weirdo?
Posts: 11181
Location: Kansas | If you figure even 12 feet off the walls (which is crazy close), in your 60-foot wide barn, you now have 46 feet between 1 & 2. IMPOSSIBLE to start loping the pattern on anything but the most athletic horse. I rented a place attached to a super narrow, long indoor arena last year and even my finished rodeo horses had trouble loping circles in there, much less doing pattern work. We could do the pole pattern but just trying to lope circles in a 40 foot wide barn was a joke. If I were starting horses on the pattern, I'd want at least 72 feet of width. Better to go wider than to wish you had after it's built. |
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Lived to tell about it and will never do it again
Posts: 5408
| Right now you may not be thinking about having any races but who knows about the future. Plus you have to think of resale value. One thing that you could do if you must go that narrow is to put wings on it for your 1st & 2nd barrel. It wouldn't be ideal but better then not having them there. |
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 No Name Nancy
Posts: 2715
Location: never in the right place | when I went to try a horse in Canada they had a small arena but they put the barrels at an angle. third was towards the top left, 2nd was near the bottom left and 1st was across from the 2nd and you started at an angle. it worked well and wasn't small |
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 Veteran
Posts: 126
Location: Ohio | I have seen some narrow arenas with a open door frame and lean to wing that barrels are put in. Wondering what size would be appropriate for this? If you are able to afford 60’ wide area possibly a 30’ wide framed opening with a 20’ roof lean to over it? |
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